Jan 1, 2013

China - China 'adds destroyers to marine surveillance fleet'

China has transferred two destroyers and nine other ex-navy vessels to
its maritime surveillance fleet, reports said Monday, as it moves to beef up
its position in bitter territorial rows with Japan and other neighbours.

Beijing renovated the ships and
transferred them to surveillance operations to "alleviate the
insufficiency of vessels used to protect maritime interests", said a
report on Tencent, one of China's major news portals.

China is embroiled in a maritime
dispute with Japan that has seen tensions between the two Asian giants, the
world's second- and third-largest economies, at times reach fever pitch.

It is also engaged in a simmering
row with its southern neighbours over its claim to vast swathes of the South
China Sea.

Beijing has been sending maritime
patrol vessels into waters around the East China Sea islands -- which it claims
as the Diaoyu and which Japan controls and calls the Senkaku -- since Tokyo
nationalised the chain in September.

China is apparently seeking to
prove it can come and go in the area at will and on Monday three of Beijing's
ships were spotted in the waters around the islands, according to Japan's
coastguard, in the latest perceived incursion.

Two of Beijing's
newly-refurbished vessels are destroyers, with one each to operate in the East
and South China Seas, with the others including tugs, icebreakers and survey
ships, according to the Tencent report.

The destroyers, the Nanjing and
Nanning, numbered 131 and 162 respectively, each had a displacement of 3,250
tonnes and had a top speed of 32 knots, according to sinodefence.com, an
independent UK-based website.

It said that during their time in
the navy they were equipped with 130mm guns with a range of 29 kilometres,
anti-ship missiles and other weapons.

The Nanjing went into service in
1977 and the Nanning in 1979. Both retired this year from the Chinese navy,
previous domestic media reports said.

It was not clear whether it was
the first time the maritime surveillance fleet has acquired destroyers, or when
the transfers took place.

China's Ministry of Foreign
Affairs declined to comment when asked about the destroyers at its regular
briefing on Monday.

Officials at the Ministry of
Defence and headquarters of the China Marine Surveillance were not immediately
available to comment when contacted by AFP.

The transfer report was first
published in the International Herald Leader, a Chinese-language newspaper
linked to Beijing's official news agency Xinhua, and the author said the
operation had been given significantly more capacity.

"The maritime surveillance
team's power has been greatly strengthened and its capacity to execute missions
sharply improved, providing a fundamental guarantee for completing the
currently arduous task to protect maritime interests," wrote Yu Zhirong,
of the government's Research Centre for Chinese Marine Development.

Since 2000 the maritime
surveillance fleet, which is tasked with "protecting China's interests and
executing law enforcement missions", has also received a total of 13 new
vessels, the report said.

Daily patrols have been stepped
up from six vessels before the disputes heated up to "more than 10"
Yu said, adding authorities planned to build another 36 surveillance ships by
2015.

A Chinese plane overflew the
islands in the East China Sea earlier this month, in what Japan said was the
first time Beijing had breached its airspace since at least 1958. Tokyo
scrambled fighter jets in response.

Yu added in the report: "I
believe Chinese maritime surveillance authorities will build and buy many ships
and planes in the future with strong capabilities and advanced equipment."

AFP

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